Patronage system as a formal power mechanism in the early modern Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
ENThe following article focuses on the ambivalence of sources generally used by researchers to analyze domestic violence that leads to a wide spectrum of views, sometimes diametrically opposed, in various problems. The necessity of limitation of the subjectivity of research leads to the serious reflection on the methodological tools of the everyday life historian, on the problems of the source as a construct, authority, especially patriarchal, as a permanently undermined resource. In order to analyze family violence it is also essential to include it in a wider spectrum of issues related to the culture of violence in a particular society. The author discusses this by analyzing certain aspects of the functioning of the early contemporary noble family on the example of the court books of the Wolyn province. Keywords: domestic violence, sources for the study of violence, violence in the old ages.
